EIGHTH ANNUAL YEAH BOOK— PART X. 719 



He will sometimes say: "I came here to solicit your advertisement and 

 incidently acquaint myself with the merits of your herd, but I do not 

 believe that under the circumstances I can render you the services you 

 might expect." It is a foolish breeder who will take offense at this. The 

 wise one will think all the better of a solicitor who has the candor and 

 courage to tell him the truth. In this way the agricultural paper 

 through its solicitors can be immensely helpful, especially to the young 

 breeder who has it in him to succeed in producing swine of the highest 

 quality, but has not yet reached the goal. 



While the agricultural newspapers can be of great advantage to the 

 swine breeding interests, it can also do untold injury by praising a herd or 

 strain far beyond its merits, and thus lulling the breeder into a false 

 security, doing this for immediate profit to the paper and not to the 

 industry. Again, it may do untold injury by booming one particular 

 strain or breeder and speaking sligntingly or derogatorily of other strains 

 or other breeders. The solicitor who will do this should be promptly 

 dismissed. For the mission of the paper is not to build up any one 

 individual but to build up the industry. 



Agricultural newspapers sometimes do untold injury to the industry 

 by encouraging booms, by permitting their solicitors to carry ficticious 

 bids to sales, and by aiding breeders to unload stock at higher prices 

 than their merits justify. Especially is the agricultural paper an enemy 

 to the swine breeding industry if it encourages boom prices for any 

 particular strain, however meritorious that strain may be. For boom 

 prices for hogs of particular strains that have won favor in the eyes of 

 judges of live stock are the sure percursor of disaster to the entire 

 swine breeding industry. For all the good qualities of the swine are 

 not in any one strain or breed. No man has a corner on porcine merits. 

 We always fear for the welfare of any breed when a boom sets in; for 

 we know as certainly as that the sun will rise that when speculators 

 get hold of any particular breed, or any particular strain or family of 

 that breed, that breed or strain or family will in a short time be in 

 disfavor with the farmers who breed and feed the vast majority of the 

 swine population of the country. When speculators come in, good 

 stock goes out. No breed or strain or family or swine can stand un- 

 usual prosperity any better than the breeder himself. 



I may perhaps have surprised you by some of my suggestions; but 1 am 

 sure that you do not expect me to say anything but what seems to me to 

 be the truth on this or any other question. 



HOW TO IMPROVE PASTURES. 



Wallaces' Farmer 



Farmers seem to be satisfied with but small returns from their per- 

 manent pastures. They piously and meekly take what comes, doubtless 

 feeling that because they have expended no labor upon them they are 

 entitled to no great reward. They seem to Imagine that the pasture is 

 resting, and while it is resting it would hardly be right to make it 

 worlv. 



